captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> ifill: september 11, 11 years later. the nation marked that milestone today with the laying of wreaths, the reading of names, and moments of silence. good evening. i'm gwen ifill. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the newshour tonight, we wrap up the day's ceremonies at the world trade center site, the pentagon, and shanksville, pennsylvania. >> ifill: then, as striking teachers stay away from chicago classrooms for a second day, we assess rising tensions between unions and financially strapped school systems. >> brown: what are the competing claims of the presidential campaigns on health care reform? paul solman offers a comparison. there is a lot of evidence that the health care in general is either misuse,ed, overused and underused for treatments.

getting the efficiency in the health care sector is the key. >> the way the republicans have set it up, it will actually just shift the costs on to the beneficiaries themselves. >> ifill: margaret warner examines a new war of words exchanged by the u.s. and israel as prime minister netanyahu calls for a tougher stand on iran's nuclear program. >> brown: and we explore why the opening of the september 11 museum has been delayed for another year at least. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.

>> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy, productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: the annual remembrance of 9/11 brought somber ceremony and muted politics today. americans looked back on a day that shook the world and led to a decade of war. >> keith george... ifill: a day of remembrance

began at ground zero, where new yorkers gathered under a crisp blue sky, reminiscent of the day of the attack eleven years ago. friends and relatives of the victims listened to what has become an annual, solemn ritual. the names, read allowed, of the nearly 3,000 who died on that day in new york, washington and pennsylvania. >> john edward bulaga,, jr. steven bruce bunan. and my financee, firefighter joseph j.ogren. i love and miss you so very much. till we meet again. >> and my son richard middleton blood, jr. rick, can you hear your name as the roll is is called again? on this sacred ground where your

dust settled. if only those that hear your name could know what a loving son and wonderful person you grew to be. >> ifill: fewer families turned out this year and elected officials attended but in an effort to dial down the politics did not speak. in washington, president and mrs. obama gathered on the south lawn of the white house. a bell tolled three times at 8:46 a.m., the moment the first hijacked plane struck the north tower in new york. then, a moment of silence. from there, the president took the short ride across the potomac to place a wreath for the 184 killed at the pentagon. several hundred people listened as mr. obama remembered the day's multiple shocks. >> even now all these years later, it is easy for those of us who lived through that day to close our eyes and to find

ourselves back there. back here. back when grief crashed over us like an awful wave, when americans everywhere held each other tight. this is never an easy day, but it is especially difficult for all of you. the families of nearly 3,000 innocents who lost their lives. >> ifill: vice president biden echoed that sentiment in shanksville, pennsylvania. flight 93 crashed after its passengers fought back against the hijackers. >> my personal prayer for all of you is that in every succeeding year, you're able to sing more than you weep. may god truly bless you and bless the souls of those 40 incredible people. who rest in this ground. >> ifill: the terrorists had hoped to crash flight 93 into the u.s. capitol. today, as in the dark days after

9/11, members of the house and senate joined in a show of unity. >> time has left the memories of 9/11 em blaze ened on our hearts for more than a decade. on this anniversary and in years to come, time will continue to tell the true story of 9/11, how the 9/11 families turned a national tragedy into a time of unity, how our country came together with resolve and with hope. >> everyone, no matter their station, everyone stood their ground. everyone kept their place. the professionals who did their duty, who ran in so that others could run out. the patriots who bandedded together in the sky over shanksville to save this capitol and these steps. >> ifill: the race for president

continued largely out of public view as the two campaigns suspended overtly political speeches for the day. but at the pentagon, the president said that 11 years later the country is safer. americans are more resilient and the wars that followed 9/11 are receding. >> today the war in iraq is over. in afghanistan, we're training afghan security forces and forging a partnership with the afghan people. by the end of 2014, the longest war in our history, will be over. >> ifill: republican mitt romney addressed the national guard association's annual convention in reno, nevada. >> with less than two to go before election day, i would normally speak to a gathering like this about the differences between my and my opponent's plans for military and for our national security. there is a time and place for that. but this day is not that.

it is instead a day to express gratitude for the men and women who fought and who are still fighting to protect us and our country. >> ifill: in kabul today, u.s. and other troops observed the day with ceremonies. and the leader of al qaeda was heard from as well. he issued a web video confirming that the group's second in command was killed last june in a u.s. drone attack. we have more about the 9/11 remembrances including all of the pentagon ceremony online. >> brown: later in the program tonight, we'll look at the unfinished museum at the world trade center site, still not open so many years later. also coming up, the national stakes for chicago's teacher strike; the candidates on health care reform; and israel's push for a tougher line against iran. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: a powerful car

bomb in yemen today narrowly missed killing the country's defense minister, as he drove through the capital city. at least a dozen other people were killed in the explosion, as it struck the last vehicle in the convoy. nearby, the force of the blast knocked out windows and scorched a building. yesterday, officials announced the death of said al-shihri, al qaeda's number two in yemen, in a u.s. drone strike. u.s. defense secretary leon panetta stepped up warnings today about an insider's account of the raid that killed osama bin laden. panetta said the former navy seal who wrote the book "no easy day" may face penalties for failing to clear it with the military. on cbs, the secretary argued the stakes go beyond just the legal arguments. >> i think when someone who signs an obligation that he will not reveal the secrets of this kind of operation and then does that and doesn't abide by the rules, that when he reveals that kind of information, it does indeed jeopardize other

operations and the lives of others that are involved in those operations. >> sreenivasan: the author has been identified as matt bissonnette. he denies the book contains any information that could affect national security. the cost of health care premiums has risen up another 4% this year. it is less than last year, when premiums rose 9%, but the increase is still more than twice the rise in wages. the kaiser family foundation reported today that the average cost of annual premiums is now just under $16,000. workers pay about a quarter of that cost. house speaker john boehner voiced doubt today that congress can reach a budget deal and avoid automatic spending cuts and tax hikes in january. boehner said house republicans have done what's needed, by passing bills to avoid the looming "fiscal cliff." instead, he put the blame squarely on senate democrats and the president. >> i'm not confident at all. listen, the house has done its job on both the sequester and on the looming tax hikes that will cost our economy some 700,000

jobs. the senate at some point has to act. on both of these, where is the president? where is the leadership? absent without leave. >> sreenivasan: negotiations on avoiding the cuts are not expected until after the november elections. in the meantime, the moody's rating agency said today it will likely cut its triple-a credit rating on u.s. government bonds, if the budget talks fail. wall street managed to move ahead today, recouping some of monday's losses. the dow jones industrial average gained 69 points to close at 13,232. the nasdaq rose half a point to close at 3104. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to jeff. >> brown: and we head back to chicago, and the national spotlight focused on a teacher's strike in the nation's third largest school system. >> brown: chicago teachers walked the picket lines for a second day as contract talks resumed. the union spokeswoman said the teachers had agreed to just six

of 49 articles in the proposed contract. one of the most contentious remains the issue of tying teacher evaluations student test results. democratic mayor rahm emmanuel has pushed that idea and other reforms. on monday he drew support from an unlikely quarter, in portland oregon republican vice president shall nominee paul ryan said this teachers' union strike is unnecessary and wrong. we know that rahm is not going to support our campaign, but on this issue and this day we stand with mayor rahm emmanuel. the man at the top of the republican ticket, mitt romney, criticized the strikers and accused president obama of siding with them. but mayor emmanuel, the president's former chief of staff, rejected any attempt to use the strike as a means to attack his one-time boss. >> the president is committed, has done one of the most important things with race to the top to make sure that we have account in our system and the best qualified teachers in

our schools. that's exactly what we're trying to do here. >> brown: announced in 2009 the race to the top competition seeks to encourage performance-based standards in state and local school districts. at least 30 states have begun using student test scores to evaluate teachers, but the move has often ignited tensions with teacher unions and administrators. in washington d.c., teachers agreed to implement a merit-based pay system in 2010 and new york state educators did the same earlier this year. but those agreements were reached only after years of difficult negotiations. in los angeles, the union and school district officials are now in talks over how to implement a new teacher evaluation system. for for the record, we invited mayor emanuel to appear on the program and roy roamer who served as superintendent of los angeles unified school district twr 2001

to 2006 and before that as governor of colorado. he's currently senior advisor to the college board. randi weingarter, i want to start with you. when you look at the chicago strike -- and i know you're out there now in chicago -- what are the one or two more most important issues that you find resonating at the national level that affect teachers everywhere. >> it's really about saving the heart and soul of public education for all kids who need public education. and when you're on the streets talking to teachers, they are determined to have the tools they need to help kids and for kids to have the resources they need to succeed. and what struck me -- no pun intended -- was how resolute teachers are and para-professionals are about "this is a fight to ensure their kids, their communities, have

what they need." i'm seeing that across the country with the need to increase standards so that we're doing much more project-based learning and deep and richer learning, something that i know roy has been advocating. but yet at the same time poverty increasing and the cuts in schools almost making it incredibly hard for us to do our jobs. and then being blamed when we can't do our jobs. >> brown: roy roamer, at a more specific level, a lot of seems to be around things like hours of the day, the number of hours worked, and teacher evaluations. what do you see when you look at chicago? >> i think they need to extend the hours of the school day. i think we just need that more time to do the job for those children. i think the real issue out there is whether to use tests for part of the evaluation. i think we need multiple measures to evaluate teachers. we have to do a better job of

evaluating teachers. we ought to use tests to determine what progress a student has made. >> brown: randi weingarter, speak to that specifically. >> roy, you know i love you. but the teachers have already agreed to the longer day. the issue is making sure that that day is actually used for the right things. right now in chicago a city by the way that's had mayor control for 15 years, a city that has tremendous management rights and top-down authority. but between what the teachers were telling me is between 15 and 25 days, the equivalent of 15 to 25 days, are being used for test prepare. as roy knows, we think that there should be multiple measures in evaluations and we need to have evaluations that go to "have i taught it "? and have kids learned it? we need to make sure that the evaluation system is comprehensive and fair and about

continuous improvement not tied significantly to one measure meaning these old tests that no longer pleasure what kids are supposed to be able to do. >> randi is right. we need better tests but a test's primary purpose is is to help the child learn during the next period of instruction. but we also need to evaluate teachers and test data has to be a part of multiple measures. you have to be very careful and cautious how you do this because otherwise they'll game the system. >> brown: let me stay with you. aate low of the focus has been in chicago and beyond. it has been whether the teachers' unions are resisting changes in reforms such as that. you've argued that in the past. where do you see the resistance and how does it play out? >> reapped has been one of the persons who has been trying to move unions forward on this. i have to tell you, there's a lot of variety of opinion. we ought not be in this strike out there. we ought not. we ought to be settling this on the negotiating table. we have to include some multiple measures for teacher evaluation.

hopefully randi is out there and can bring this to an end. it ought to be brought to an end by negotiation. >> brown: randi weingarter. look, no one wants a strike. it is unfortunate that it has gotten to this point. it was unfortunate all the things that led up to it including the mayor's taking away a raise, trying to unilaterally implement the extended day, but the parties are working hard at the table. i went over to the bargaining table for a bit today. i'm in chicago to really do not only a fact-finding but obviously to support the teachers and the para-professionals, but let me just say. the teachers want to be in classrooms but they want to make sure that they have the tools to do their job. they want to make sure the kids have the tools to do their jobs. >> brown: again, i want to go broaden it more naturally, randi weingarter. there's a sense out there -- and you hear it from politicians and you hear it from people on the street -- that the teachers' union is resisting such changes

and specifically the teacher evaluation and such things as that. we see it in different cities. >> right. it's just not true. look, people have been asking me this all week long. there are districts upon districts and unions upon unions that have agreed to teacher evaluations throughout this country. you've had connecticut, new york, and new jersey all change their teacher evaluation systems this year with the work of teacher unions. what the teach unions have asked for is that teachers are actually being treated fairly. they actually have the tools and conditions they need. what you're seeing is you're seeing a lot of big city mayors resist that because they don't want to spend the money on it. ultimately if we're going to change to have these new standards, which is what roy and i have both championed, so that kids are applying knowledge not just knowing things, we need to have the time to make sure that that gets done right. same with evaluations.

you can't just have a press conference and say we now have a new evaluation system. we have to actually make sure we do these things correctly and collaboratively. that's what teacher unions throughout the country are trying to do or at least the teacher unions that i'm involved with are trying to do. >> brown: so why do you still see resistance and why is there that sense? >> the teachers' union in chicago, i don't think has the approach that randi weingarter does. i think she's on the right track. namely, we need to have this multiple evaluation. we ought to involve teachers in designing the system. but we ought to do it and do it quickly and get those kids back in school in chicago. >> right. unfortunately, i'm sorry to interrupt, roy. i think that's whapg at the bargaining table now. but why did it take a strike deadline to do that? these folks have been bargaining for months and months and months. in the last few days i've seen real progress. i've been monitoring it a lot. on the phone all last weekend. no one wants a strike. a strike hurts everyone. but we want to make sure we get

it right for kids. that's what the chicago unions is... >> brown: roy roamer, you've been on the political side of this as well. is there a political shift underway? i mean, you can't help but think about this in the midst of the campaign. here we have the democratic demc mayor rahm emmanuel. the unions have been allies of the democratic party. here's a fight. >> this is a local issue. i don't want to get national politics and debate in on it. i think city by city state by state we need to solve these problems. i think we can solve these problems. we're making progress. but the key thing is we have to think about these kids. they're not getting a good enough education. we need to be radical in the change that we bring to the table. >> brown: randi weingarter, do you see yourself in some sense fighting both parties now. >> look, i think roy is right. this is a low issue. it has national ramifications. but you notice the first thing mitt romney, who doesn't want to

invest in public education, the first thing did is try to nationalize this issue and try to get president obama in there. president obama rightly said or his campaign rightly said this is a local issue that has to be solved at the negotiating table. one side does... one size does not fit all. but we do want to make sure that teachers are the best they can be. we want to make sure they get support. we want to make sure the kids get what they need so they can achieve their dreams. >> brown: randi weingarter, roy roamer, thanks both very much. >> thank you. for the record we invited mayor emmanuel to appear on the program this evening. his office did not respond to our request. >> ifill: next, how economic philosophy defines the presidential candidates' campaigns approach to health care. newshour economics correspondent paul solman has our story, part of his ongoing reporting on "making sense of financial news."

>> i was actually on jury duty when i got a call from my husband and he said i have a brain tumor. >> reporter: tracy and mark morgan were married in 1995, bought this house in charlotte north carolina four years later. she was creative director at an ad agency. he was a free lance commercial photographer. >> i asked questions. of course one of them is how much time does he have? and they said two months to a year. >> reporter: that was back in october, 2009. ten months later while nursing him encouraging him, tracy lost her job in advertising. >> our 33-person agency had shrunk down to nine, two of them principals. one of them came to me and said, we're closing the doors. we're filing bankruptcy. >> reporter: and that's when your health insurance ends? >> yep. when you're with a company and they go into bankruptcy, you don't have health insurance.

even if you're someone that had insurance your entire life, every job, paid your premiums, it doesn't matter. you don't have health insurance. >> reporter: the democrats assembled in charlotte last week, morgan was a prime exhibit in defense of the president's affordable care act because when you have a spouse facing treatments that would, as in this case, cost over a million dollars, just try to buy health insurance in a free market. >> he was on radiation. he had the c... he had two forms of infusion twice a month. he would be declined. he was going to take a man that has stage 4 brain cancer receiving the amount of care that he was requiring. >> reporter: what do you do? north carolina was an early adopter of the affordable health care act. because of that, they had a program called inclusive health. they take patients with preexisting conditions.

i didn't believe it. i was incredulous. but it happened. i got the card. he received his treatment. just unbelievable when i see the cost. >> reporter: to democrats like former president bill clinton, the argument is simple. >> republicans call it derisively obama-care. they say it's a government takeover, a disaster. and that if we'll just elect them, they'll repeal it. well, are they right? >> no! let's take a look at what's actually happened so far. >> reporter: what's happened, say clinton and others, is that millions of uninsured americans are finally covered or soon will be. in large part because so many of them, like the morgans, can no longer be rejected for preexisting conditions. vice president joe biden's

former economic advisor jared bernstein. >> if you repeal the affordable care act, what you just heard is part of what you lose. >> reporter: now it may seem unfair to the republicans to pit them against a heart-rending case study. but the unlimited amount spend on mark morgan's care illustrates one of their key arguments, that america's health care system costs more than anyone else's yet gets no better results. because we rely on government, said vice president shall candidate paul ryan in tampa, not on a competitive market. >> obama-care comes to more than 2,000 pages of rules, mandates, taxes, fees, and fines that have no place in a free country. >> reporter: that's why, says presidential candidate mitt romney... >> we must reign in the skyrocketing costs of health care by repealing and replacing obama-care. >> reporter: on day one a romney presidency as he's repeatedly

said. but on "meet the press" this week, romney seemed to suggest he would be open to keeping some parts of the affordable care act. >> there are a number of things that i like in health care reform that i'm going to put in place. one is to make sure that those with preexisting conditions can get coverage. >> reporter: romney's campaign later clarified that he would provide coverage only for the continuously insured. that would seem to leave out any of the tens of millions of people with preexisting conditions who, if they lost insurance for at least a month, like the morgans did when tracy's employer went bankrupt, might not be able to get new insurance. moreover, repealing the affordable care act is a cornerstone of the overall republican economic program. at a spanking new training facility at the university of south florida in tampa, john mccain's economic advisor in 2008, douglas akin elaborated. >> there is a lot of evidence that health care in general we

misuse, overuse and underuse different treatments. getting the efficiency in the health care sector is the key. >> reporter: getting efficiency. in general, he says, america spends too much on medical care for what it gets. a competitive market-based system would cut costs and improve service. the argument is exemplified by this o.r., he says, where surgeons do everything from a catheterization to a by-pass in the very same room. and operate by remote control. >> look at this. the power of innovation. we've seen it in the private sector. america has the finest medical science and we need to capture that, get it good incentives. those incentives typically come from winning a contract, winning a bid. >> reporter: isn't that true, we asked jared bernstein? don't economists, like him, agree that in general competition works? >> it's a good point. there will be competition in the affordable care act between insurers as they compete within the health care exchanges. part of the act but we need

competition within medicare, he insists. >> what republican want to do is start with entitlement reform because medicare in particular is a fee-for-service system where doctors are paid for whatever they do, as much as they do it. hospitals are paid separately. some insurance companies are paid separately. over here the drug companies get paid. there's no coordination. there's no patient at the center of it. they want to fix it. >> reporter: fix it with health care providers vying for the older americans' business. >> if you can provide the care cheaper and the quality is sufficiently high, you're going to get that senior's money. >> reporter: the mechanics of the republican medicare plan hinge on vouchers, credits you can use to buy medical care at places like this presumably or anywhere elsewhere the costs are lower. >> it's a very close cousin to the prescription drug bill which brought competitive bidding into the entitlement programs for the first time. so if you give me as a senior a voucher, a certain amount of

money which is capped, it's only 1% more than g.d.p. growth? >> it will grow at g.d.p. plus 1%. >> reporter: and then i get to spend the money on insurance or not, if i take a cheaper plan i get to keep some of the money. >> if you want a more expensive plan, you can pay for more as well. >> reporter: make that a lot more said jared bernstein. medicare costs have been rising far faster than g.d.p. growth plus one percent. >> the wayhe republicans have set it up, it actually will just shift the cost on to the beneficiaries themselves. if the voucher doesn't cover their medicare they have to reach into their pocket and make up the difference. the median income for a medicare beneficiary is about $22,000-$25,000 a year. those folks cannot really dig into their pockets to make up the difference between the voucher and what medicare actually costs. >> reporter: even with the affordable care act, tracy morgan did have to dig deep into her own pockets. >> i paid a premium.

i had a deductible. i went through about $60,000 of our own personal savings which, you know, i feel fortunate to have. i know a lot of people don't have $60,000 to go through. >> reporter: what would you have done had north carolina not adopted affordable care act? >> i would have lost everything. to keep up with the payments. there's no way i would have just stopped them. he probably would have wanted me to. that was another wonderful thing is i was always able to assure him that this wasn't coming out of my pocket. it's okay, honey, you can... this care is expensive but you deserved it. you've deserved it. you do deserve it. >> reporter: mark morgan died last december. having lived nearly two years beyond his initial prognosis. tracy says the time together was priceless. but on the other hand we all

paid for it and price was no object. >> brown: a new row has erupted with a key u.s. ally, israel, over iran's uranium enrichment program. there were harsh criticisms of u.s. policy from israel's leader today, and word that president obama won't have time to meet with him next month. margaret warner has the story. warner: israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu didn't bother to conceal his unhappiness with the obama administration today over its handling of the iran nuclear issue. >> if iran knows that there is no red line, if iran knows that there is no deadline, what will it do? exactly what it's doing. it's continuing without any

interference towards obtaining nuclear weapons capability. from there nuclear bombs. those international communities who refuse to put red lines before iran don't have a moral right to place a red light before israel. >> warner: the statement seemed to come in response to comments by secretary of state hillary clinton over the weekend. she told bloomberg news that the u.s. is not setting deadlines for diplomatic efforts to get iran to stop enriching uranium. today state department spokeswoman victoria newland sought to play down any tensions between the u.s. and israel on the iran issue. >> i'm not going to comment today on prime minister netanyahu's statements. but as we said yesterday, we are in continuous consultation with the government of israel, with our allies there on what we are seeing in iran, on the path forward.

and we will continue to do so. but we don't think it's particularly useful to have those conversations in public. it doesn't help the process and it doesn't help the integrity of the diplomacy. >> warner: late today multiple reports out of israel said president obama has refused to meet with netanyahu during the u.n. general assembly opening in two weeks. white house officials confirmed there would be no meeting but said the president's tight schedule precluded bilateral talks with any world leaders at the u.n. meanwhile, the associated press reported that the international atomic energy agency has new intelligence that iraq is taking new steps toward building a nuclear weapon. the report said the islamic republic has done computer modeling of the high explosives needed to create a nuclear chain reaction in a war head. for more on this i'm joined by an investigative reporter and military and political analyst a daily newspaper in israel.

ronen, thanks for joining us. washington and tel aviv have been at odds for some time now about what to do about iran and the timetable for it. what prompted netanyahu to go public like this today? >> well, margaret, i believe that benjamin netanyahu is quite frustrated from his point of view for not bridging the gap with the american administration on what to do on iran. during the consensus on the interpretation of the intelligence received from iran, where the iranian nuclear project stands but there is a future gap and a debate on what to do with the intelligence. the american administration has been asking, almost demanding, israel (no audio) pre-emptive strike on iran. but on the other hand israel also demanded the administration to give some sort of promise, to draw some sort of red line, to assure israel what the administration is going to do if

iran does not oblige with the the international demand to disassemble the nuclear project. on that sense, israel has not received the assurances it was looking for from the administration that the united states (no audio) take military action if other diplomatic effort have failed. >> warner: when the israelis talk about a red line, what is it exactly they want? what do they want president obama to say or do? >> i'm not sure that the israelis are speaking... seeking for a public promise. i'm quite certain that israel would (no audio) secretly. but to show israel that if diplomatic efforts and connection with iran in the next, i would say, six months to nine months fail, then an iran (no audio) would not agree to stop the enrichment and disassemble the nuclear site. then the administration would go

for other options including the military strike. these red lines that the secretary of state, as we heard, refused to make secretly and publicly are the ones that would relax israel satisfied. as long as the administration intentionally is very vague on that and does not want to promise any sort of military action in the coming future, i think that we are going to see an ongoing tension increasingly between the two administrations. >> warner: what has the obama administration done up until now to try to keep israel on board, to have israel feel comfortable that it can wait before striking either on its own or, of course, wanting the u.s. to join? >> the obama a mrgs has done much more on the iranian issue than the bush administration. it has opened a very intimate,

close beings i would say unprecedented intelligence cooperation with israel. the two sides join in operations in iran, in sharing every bit of intelligence. the obama administration has issued a much more financial support to the israeli defense. different project. and also just recently in a few visits of american officials and the military (no audio) in israel has shared the military plans on iran. the administration wanting to show israel that there are contingency plans in case the president gives the order that the united states is ready to launch a strike. of course, the israeli counter question was, okay, when would that happen? if iran does not submit to any of the international demand, will you strike?

at that point the american administration in all the talks, high-ranking officials have declined on giving any sort of specific promise. >> warner: how does the u.s. election calendar play into prime minister netanyahu's calculations here? >> well, i think it plays quite heavily. prime minister netanyahu would never admit that. but we see a line of increasing tension. some of it is deliberately between the israeli government and the american administration. as close as we get to the election. it is clear that the white house asked israel and put quite a lot pressure not to launch a pre-emptive strike at least not before the elections in order not to create an oil crisis that would damage the obama campaign. on the other hand we know from quite close ties between the republican mitt romney and prime

minister netanyahu. i think that netanyahu, close as we get to the elections is harshening its criticism towards the administration. we see some sort of at least... in sort of coordination between the mitt romney campaign and what netanyahu is doing in israel. >> warner: finally today, there was this, i don't know, a little eruption about whether or not president obama would meet with the prime minister when he's here for the u.n. meetings. what are the israelis making of this? what the white house is saying right now is that there isn't time. >> the israelis are saying that president obama would find time to meet prime minister netanyahu if he wantd. but this is a revenge for the latest criticism of the prime minister again the secretary of state. this is the very, i would say, according to the israeli point of view, almost a brutal approach from the white house in

order to say mr. prime minister, we (no audio) in line with mitt romney. therefore we don't have the time to see you. >> warner: thank you so much. >> ifill: and we come back to the 9/11 anniversary. there were three ceremonies today, but much of the commemoration remains incomplete. it's been four years to the day since the 9/11 national memorial was dedicated at the pentagon. 184 benches, one for each victim killed 11 years ago. last year on september 10, another memorial openedded in shanksville, pennsylvania. where flight 9 crashd into a field. there a central plaza leads to 40 marble panels, one for each of the crew and passengers who perishd.

money is still being raised to pay for a memorial tower and walkway. and in new york, the national september 11 memorial opened last year. twin reflecting pools now sit where the world trade center towers stood. bronze panels are inscribed with the names of all those killed on 9/11. but 11 years after the twin towers fell, the final portion of $700 million new york project, an ambitious underground museum, remains incomplete. as city, state and federal governments disagree over who pays what and for how long. "new york times" reporter charles bagli has covered the transformation of the world trade center site in the year since 9/11. he joins us now. charles, there have been sites, memorials at least, opened at all three sites now. what's been the hold-up with the museum in new york? >> well, first off, this is a

particularly difficult site. you have a lot of projects cramped into 16 acres. you had a lot of discussion about what exactly should go on here. so it's taken ten years to get to this point. they did an accelerated schedule to open the memorial plaza on the 10th anniversary a year ago. then immediately afterwards, the two governors who control the port authority which own the land decided to stop construction at the museum until they settled a variety of issues. it boiled down really to money and control. >> ifill: are we talking about a problem that involves the construction, the vision for what would go there or just plain old-fashion politics? >> plain old-fashioned politics and money. the situation is where you have a private foundation that's in charge of both the museum and

the memorial. and they've raised a certain amount of money for construction. on the other hand their contractor in essence is the port authority. and the port authority was concerned, among other things, about whether or not any cost overruns would fall back on them. so they wanted to try and contain it. in the run-up to the 10th anniversary, both at the museum and at the memorial, they were doing three shifts so it was going full blast. it's very expensive. what they wanted to do was stop the accelerated schedule among other things but there were also some control issues. you had on the one hand the foundation which is headed by the mayor of new york city, michael bloomberg and the port authority which is controlled by the governor of new york and the governor of new jersey. they don't always see eye to eye. >> ifill: when you say that this

is very expensive, how much is this ending up costing than was originally plannedded? >> well, that's hard to say. a lot of this is about who is going to pay those costs. but in the end it's a billion dollar museum. all told. when you put together the money that the foundation has raised, hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds from both the federal government and from the state government, port authority money, it's a billion dollars. it's a very expensive museum. and it's also... there were questions raised by the two governors, why is a private foundation have full authority here when there's so much public money at stake? >> ifill: now an agreement has been reached at least among those two governors to move forward yet here in washington there's at least one congressman

who or a senator who is raise questions about whether the upkeep money, $20 million a year that would come from the federal government should be spent this way. >> that's right. what we're talking about right now are the construction costs. the next issue is once the museum is open, it's got a projected budget of $60 million. where is that money going to come from? they expect that there will be millions of visitors who come to the museum which is seven stories underground and look around and they'll pay some sort or contribute some sort of admission fee. but they want... they need more money than that. so the new york senator submitted a bill that would have the federal government supply about $20 million a year towards the operating costs. this got held up by another

senator who... >> ifill: tom coburn of oklahoma. >> yes. tom coburn, that's right. he brought up this issue that, well, i don't want to just put another bill for congress to pay. the money... where is that money going to come from? it's an unpaid bill. essentially. >> ifill: so many... so it's been stalled. ifill: now that this construction gets underway, maybe in time for next year's anniversary, what would this museum be? 75% of it is already complete. some people have seen some of it. what would be there down those seven flights? >> well, number one. you're going to see that there will be the remains of a lot of the people who were sort of blown up in the terrorist attack. there be a lot of artifacts, pieces of the world trade center that were left over including an iron beam that formed sort of a

cross where mass was held during the clean-up. there will be audio-visual displays and lots of photographs including a lot of material concerning the victims, the people that died in the terrorist attack as well as the 19 hijackers who basically rammed the planes into the two towers. >> ifill: as far as we know this is now back on track. >> construction should resume at the end of the month, and barring any future disagreemen disagreements, it would take maybe a year, maybe a little longer, to complete. >> ifill: charles bag li of the "new york times." >> and it will be up and running. >> ifill: thank you so much. charles bag li o "new york time" thanks for joining us. you can find a time line of the starts and the stops of the construction on our website. also there, you can revis it our coverage of the 10th

anniversary of the attack. >> brown: we close with two tributes to >> brown: and we close with two tributes to those who have given their lives on 9/11 and in the wars since. first, to poet billy collins. he was the nation's poet laureate at the time of the attacks. one year later, he wrote a poem titled "the names." he read it before a special joint session of congress held in new york in 2002, and again for us last year on the tenth anniversary. tonight, we offer an encore of that reading. . >> the names. for the victims of september 11 and their survivors. yesterday i lay awake in the palm of the night, a fine rain unhelped by any breeze. when i saw the silver glaze on the windows, i started with a, with ackerman as it happened and then baxter and davis and eberling, names falling into place as droplets fell through the dark. names printed on the ceiling of

the night. names slipping around a watery bend, 26 willows on the banks of a stream. in the morning i walked out barefoot among thousands of flowers, heavy with dew like the eyes of tears and each had a name. fiori inscribed on a yellow pet al then gonzales and han, ishikawa and jenkins. names written in the air and stitched into the cloth of the day. and a name under a photograph taped to a mailbox. mono grammed on a torn shirt. i see you spelled out on store front windows and on the bright unfurled awnings of this city. i say the syllables as i turn a corner, kelly and lee, madina, nardella and o'connor. when i peer into the woods, i see a thick tangle where letters are hidden as in a puzzle concocted for children.

parker and quigley and the twigs of an ash. rizzo, shoe better, torres and upton secrets in the branches of an ancient maple. names rising up in the updraft of the buildings, names silent in stone or cried out behind a door. names blown over the earth and out to sea. in the evening weakening light, the last swallows, a boy on a lake lifts his oars. a woman by a window puts a match to a candle and the names are outlined on the clouds. vanicor and wallace. let x stand, if it can, for the ones unfound. and then young and ziminski, the final jolt of z. names etched on the head of a pin, one name spanning a bridge,

another undergoing a tunnel. a blue name, needled into the skin. names of citizens, workers, mothers and fathers. the bright-eyed daughter. the quick son. alphabet of names in green rows in a field. names in the small tracks of birds. names lifted from a hat or balanced on the tip of the tongue. names wheeled into the dim warehouse of memory. so many names there is barely room on the walls of the heart. >> ifill: that was billy collins, the former poet laureate of the united states reading his poem "the names." and our second tribute is part of a regular feature on the newshour, our honor roll of american service personnel killed in the afghanistan conflict. we add them as their deaths are made official and photographs become available. here, in silence, are ten more.

>> brown: again, the major developments of the day. the nation marked the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks with somber ceremony and muted politics. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu rejected diplomatic delays in forcing iran to abandon its nuclear program. it was some of his toughest criticism yet of u.s. handling of the issue. the presidential candidates have sparred on the economy, health care, foreign relations and other subjects. now there's a push for more on science policy. hari sreenivasan explains. >> sreenivasan: a group called science debate posed 14 questions to the two campaigns, asking about climate change, energy, space, and food. find out how they graded responses from president obama and mitt romney. and on our making sense page, paul once again features the musical stylings of monetary minstrel jon shayne, the nashville investment manager

whose stage name is merle hazard. his latest is an animated video called "fiscal cliff." americans are visiting the doctor less often. that's when health care premiums aren't rising much. that is on the rundown. all that and more on our website all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. >> ifill: and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, we'll look at new census numbers on the number of americans living in poverty. i'm gwen ifill. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. thank you, and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century.

and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org